Dow Jones falls amid impasse

Investors sent Washington a reminder Friday that Wall Street is a power player in talks to avoid the "fiscal cliff."

Stocks fell sharply after House Republicans called off a vote on tax rates and left federal budget talks in disarray 10 days before sweeping tax increases and government spending cuts are scheduled to take effect.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost as much as 189 points before closing down 120.88 points, or 0.9 percent, at 13,190.84. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 13.54 points to 1,430.15. The Nasdaq composite index declined, 29.38 to 3,021.01.

EARNINGS

Walgreen in red for 1st quarter

Net income in the quarter ended Nov. 30 fell to $413 million, or 43 cents per share, from $554 million, or 63 cents, a year earlier, the Deerfield, Ill., company said Friday. Excluding certain charges, profit totaled 58 cents per share.

Walgreen renewed a contract in July to provide Express Scripts customers with prescriptions, ending a standoff that caused it to lose shoppers to CVS Caremark Corp. Walgreen Chief Executive Officer Greg Wasson has been working to win back sales with a customer loyalty program that started in September to coincide with the new contract.

COMPUTERS

HTC's tablets to use Windows

HTC Corp. plans to make tablets based on the Windows operating system, giving Microsoft another ally in its challenge to Apple and Google in the $63.2 billion market, people familiar with the matter said.

HTC, excluded earlier this year from the first batch of Windows tablets, is working on a 12-inch device and a 7-inch version that can also make phone calls, according to a person familiar with the company's plans.

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer is racing to get more Windows-based tablets into stores, making up for delays that have made it harder to catch Apple, Google and Amazon.com in a market projected by researcher NPD to almost double to $123.5 billion in 2015.

LICENSING

'Pooh' ruling favors Disney

Walt Disney Co. won an appeals court ruling that protects its trademark rights to the Winnie-the-Pooh characters.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office was correct to throw out challenges to the trademark ownership filed by Stephen Slesinger Inc., which has waged a decades-long battle with Disney over ownership of the Pooh characters, an appeals court in Washington said Friday. Slesinger had already litigated the issue and lost in district court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said in an opinion posted on its website.

A.A. Milne, who wrote the Pooh books, transferred merchandising rights to Stephen Slesinger in 1930, and his widow licensed the rights to Disney in 1961.